Economy Delaying IT Projects, Not Canceling: Gartner

By Michelle Maisto |
Posted 2009-05-14

Gartner is reporting that the weakened global economy has caused more
computing projects to be delayed than canceled, based on interviews conducted
from late February through early March with 475 IT decision makers across nine
countries.

Gartner expects the area of IT hardware, including PCs, servers, storage and
printing systems, to be hardest hit, with declines around 14.9 percent and a
lag extending into 2010. Overall
IT spending is also expected to decline in 2009, by approximately 3.7
percent, though it is expected to rebound the following year to a tune of 2.4
percent growth.

"Enterprise belt-tightening has had a tremendous impact on the client
computing technology segment, with 43 percent of respondents expecting a
decrease in spending on client computing hardware in 2009 compared with
2008," said Andrew Johnson, managing vice president at Gartner, in a
statement on the report.

By country and industry, however, survey responses were found to vary. While 48
percent of all respondents stated that some of their PC projects would be
deployed as planned in 2009, 85 percent of the respondents in China
and 64 percent of respondents in India
were more optimistic, expecting most of their projects to carry on as planned.

In the United States,
only 29 percent of respondents expected projects to continue as originally
planned, and in France,
only 18 percent did, Johnson reported.

In media, insurance and consumer business services industries, respondents were
most on track with their plans. In telecommunications, wholesale and
agriculture, mining and construction, spending reductions were common. Retail,
utilities and wholesale companies reported postponements were more likely, and
in discrete manufacturing, cancellations were above average.

In the financial services sector, Johnson wrote in the Gartner statement, "only
1 out of 45 respondents ... indicated PC purchase plans were canceled, and in
this sector, reduced, postponed, and as-planned responses came in near the
averages."